Published on
August 17, 2021
Video length
64 mins
Music and language form the backbone of nearly every public worship service, yet we don’t often reflect on the implications of this pairing. What is the relationship of music and language in Christian worship, and how might we best utilize them—separately and together—to give God glory and to form the faith of worshipers? Watch this webinar with Professor Jeremy Begbie of Duke Divinity School, who helps us think more deeply about how we can do justice to the primacy of the Word in worship while also honoring the immense powers of a non-verbal medium such as music. Dr. Begbie is interviewed by Noel Snyder, program manager at CICW.

Recent Media Resources

Psalm Singing and the Genevan Psalter

Why and how did psalm singing become such a hallmark of Reformed worship? Join Dr. Karin Maag for a fascinating journey through time, from Reformation Geneva to Scotland and from the Netherlands to New England, exploring the roots and impact of metrical psalm singing. Along the way, we will hear the voices of early modern Christians as they learned how to sing the psalms, both in unison and in harmony. 

December 4, 2025 | 38 min video
Kathleen Harmon on Becoming the Psalms

Sister Kathleen Harmon of the community of the Ohio province of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in Dayton, invites us to be transformed by the psalms and experience them as the whole story God is revealing to us. As we keep praying and singing them, the psalms interpret us, and that’s when the transformation comes.

December 2, 2025 | 32 min listen
Vinroy D. Brown Jr. on Black Psalmody is for Everyone

Vinroy D. Brown Jr.—conductor, musicologist, educator, and minister of creative worship and music at the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City—explores the vibrant intersection of Black sacred music and the psalms. He talks about Black composers and how they have reimagined the psalms through choral music, spirituals, and the gospel tradition for the benefit of everyone.

December 2, 2025 | 34 min listen